WHIPLASH PART 3
One might expect that people who drive cars in demolition derbies would suffer from whiplash-related conditions at an extremely high rate, the shocking truth is that statistically they do not*. Granted, there is a difference in the physics of a voluntary and relatively controlled motor vehicle collision compared to one that happens unintentionally and unexpectedly, but are the physics and psychology of these two examples great enough to account for the vast difference in the kind of pain people experience from a typical car accident? Therein lies part of the bias that independent medical examiners are sometimes led astray in dismissing serious cases as if they were merely the imagination or exaggeration of the victim. Aristotle wrote “Treatment of the part should never be attempted without treatment of the whole,” though modern medical guidelines and research have never taken this approach and while well-meaning and generally well-researched, are likely biased by expert consensus and medical authority rather than common sense wound-healing physiology and the biomechanics of whiplash injury#.
Most whiplash symptoms resolve in four to six weeks if treated properly, sometimes even when not treated at all, though waiting out that time period before starting Chiropractic care increases the chances of a complicated or failed recovery (we suspect it allows soft tissue and spinal injuries to harden, or develop scar tissue in their damaged positions). Sometimes a victim is frightened to start Chiropractic too soon, because of fear that the treatment will hurt or be ineffective. There may be credible concern in the first 24 hours after a whiplash, when rest and ice are probably the best approaches to letting the shock and intense inflammation cool down, but once emergency room concerns have been dealt with (loss of consciousness, bleeding from the head, vision problems, or anything else extreme or worrisome that justifies going to the hospital right away), the sooner the better it typically is to start conservative care. More next time…
*Simotas A, Shen T. Neck pain pain in demolition derby drivers.
The annual meeting of the North American Spine Society, Montreal, 2002
# Nahum AM and Gomez MA: Injury reconstruction: the biome-chanical analysis of
accidental injury. Society of Automotive Engineers SP-1030, SAE No. 940568:69-79, 1994.
-Dr. Russell Petersen, DC. Creekside Chiropractic & Rehabilitation, 4027 S. Business Drive, Sheboygan, Wisconsin.